Can a person's sexual preference be revealed simply by looking at their online Facebook friends? Yes it can, say two students from MIT who have developed a software program that purports to do just that. By looking at the gender and sexuality of a person's Facebook friends, the program uses statistical analysis to predict the likelihood that someone is gay or straight.

"When they first did it, it was absolutely striking - we said, 'Oh my God - you can actually put some computation behind that,'" said Hal Abelson, a computer science professor at MIT. "That pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information - because you don't have control over your information."

The project, which the MIT students have dubbed "Gaydar," is just one of many that seek to analyze social networks and find out what the connections between people might be revealing, such as whether or not someone is likely to be a terrorist, political affiliations, or even if they're happy or overweight.

Boston.com has a ton more on this and related studies, which you can read here. Afterward, hit the jump and tell us whether or not you think your Friends list reveals anything about you.

Engineers have come up with a bit of sick technology, and we're not using that term as slang. Instead, they've found a way to assemble a key component of a microscopic battery using viruses, potentially paving the way for cheap and simple construction of pint-sized power sources.

The MIT group had previously been able to genetically engineer viruses to make a protein skin capable of attracting bits of metal, and this new research builds on that by having those same viruses build a specific part. In the MIT experiment, the genetically engineered viruses would help build the anode portion of a battery by attracting cobalt oxide. And more than just a proof of concept, the process has been drawing attention because of its ease-of-use and low cost.

One stumbling block preventing the widespread use of viruses in battery construction is a lack of application. There currently aren't any devices that would require a battery roughly one tenth the width of a human hair, though future applications could see the technology being used in nanotechnology.

Anyone else see the plot for a bad B-movie shaping up?